The present invention relates in general to an apparatus adapted to be mounted on furniture, including the stand or the base of a piece of furniture which comes in contact with the floor or a similar supporting surface. In particular, the present invention comprises a unitary protective foot device for axially mounting on a floor contacting member of a piece of furniture. The foot device is adapted to fit snugly on a variety of contacting members and to remain secure on said members, without the use of tools, fasteners or separate fastening mechanisms. Further, the design is easy to mount and to remove from a contacting member. Additionally, it is strong enough to support a piece of furniture, can restrict creeping or moving of the furniture, and does not mar the integrity of the floor or the supporting surface on which the furniture is placed. Further still, the device can protect the integrity of the contacting member from abrasion or destruction.
On certain types of furniture, which may include tables, chairs, or any utilitarian device wherein a member of the framing is parallel with the ground and serves as a leg on which the furniture rests, it is often desirable to interpose a substance or pad between the leg member and the ground to prevent direct contact. The purpose of this pad may be to preserve the original surface of either the ground or the member or to either prevent furniture from shifting or moving or to, conversely, aid in easy movement. In furniture that has legs or feet positioned vertically to the ground, this usually takes the shape of cups that can be slipped over the ends of the legs or glides or pads that are nailed, riveted, or screwed into the ends of the legs. Glides are most commonly used for easy movement of the furniture; soft cups or pads are typically used to prevent movement.
The use of a protective foot, pad or bumper to prevent items, such as furniture having a horizontal floor contacting member, from scuffing, scraping, scratching, or marring the floor or the furniture's base is well recognized. Devices for this purpose are discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,648,653, 3,404,916, 3,826,453, 3,365,233, and 1,988,860.
In the case of horizontal floor contacting members, these prior art protective pads or feet usually take the form of a hard or soft pad that must be permanently or semi-permanently attached to the horizontal member by either an adhesive, screw, rivet, nail or other similar interlocking member (i.e. U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,897), In most cases, it is necessary to prepare the receiving leg with a hole, dimple indentation (or roughing of the surface in the case of adhesive) into which fastening device (screw, rivet, nail or projection from the foot member itself) is inserted. Usually the preparation of the horizontal leg member is designed to mate with a particular shape connection (i.e. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,888,775 and 4,041,881). That often means that each manufacturer has its own shape of foot and leg preparation so that the pads cannot be interchanged between the furniture legs of different manufacturers. It also means that should a foot or protective pad become broken, replacement is often extremely difficult since the user must go to that specific manufacturer to obtain replacement parts. Such replacements, by the very nature of the parts, can also be complicated, cumbersome and sometimes destructive. No generic replacement protective feet are available to the end user.